"When he started East Coast Grill, farm-to-table wasn't a thing," he said of Chris Schlesinger, his uncle, who opened the restaurant in 1986.
The second course listed on the menu was "grilled Queens farm pork loin," which sounded as if the dish had been created by someone from Queens.
We watched the owner, Dominique Hardy, grill plump farm-house sausages and racks of ribbekes, baby pork ribs sprinkled with a "secret" burnt-orange spice mix that I'd wager contained nutmeg, turmeric, pepper and cloves, over the embers of a wood fire.
Ms. Palin picked the location: Joe's Farm Grill, which serves grilled American grub not far from an interstate highway.
At Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, Bolanos is cooking, for example, grilled Marcho Farms veal chop; Dover sole with black trumpet mushrooms and sweet and sour shallots; black truffle pot pie with Jidori chicken; and New Zealand venison with braised red cabbage, chestnut puree and Marasca cherries.
Also great on the grill are the farm's hot dogs, kielbasa and knockwurst ($5.60 to $5.95 a pound).
Joe's Farm Grill sources many ingredients on site.
Joe's Farm Grill, built on the family's ranch-style homestead was converted into a mid-century-style "burger stand" with a butterfly roof and open breezeway, creating an airy patio with shade under century-old trees.
There are squeals as a boy pulls out a fish, one of half a dozen that will shortly be gutted and grilled in the farm's adjoining restaurant.
The menu changes daily to reflect seasonal offerings from local farms, like the recent Meiller's Farm grilled pork chop with potato gratin, cider reduction and red wine rosemary butter ($22) and savory vegetarian options like house-made greens and cheese ravioli with roasted beets, broccoli rabe and local mozzarella ($18).
Wilber Hardee, a farm boy turned grill cook who went on to open the first Hardee's hamburger stand in 1960, starting a chain that now has nearly 2,000 restaurants in the United States and overseas, died Friday at his home in Greenville, N.C.
